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There have been several attempts to make PCs smaller, but Watford Electronics's Aries SpaceCube does the job without sacrificing too much functionality. It comes in a smart, brushed aluminium case and wouldn't look out of place in most living rooms.
Aimed mainly at the lifestyle market, the SpaceCube measures 185 x 265 x 170mm. This makes it around the same size as three external 5.25in drive cases placed one on top of the other.
There's a lot more inside this PC than hard disk drives, though. It's based on a 1.1GHz Celeron in a FlexATX form factor system board. Although tiny, this board is well equipped, with space for 1GB of memory, onboard Savage 4 graphics from its VIA chipset and both USB and FireWire ports.
There are two USB 1.1 sockets at the back and another two on the front panel next to the microphone and speaker audio jacks. Twin FireWire ports at the rear are designed for connecting digital video equipment or high-speed external devices, such as hard disk drives.
There are line-in/out jacks at the back for other audio needs, although you can't use the speaker outputs at the front and the rear at the same time. Sound output is only stereo, so Dolby 5.1 support is out, plus there's no spare PCI slot for a separate sound card. Speakers weren't supplied with our review model.
A 56Kbps modem is fitted to the PC's only PCI expansion slot and a 10/100Base-T NIC is provided for home or office networks.
These connections make the SpaceCube 1200 a versatile player, with very little you can't connect it to.
Our review configuration used 128MB of 133MHz SDRAM, with the graphics adapter using 16MB as frame and texture buffer. Although the S3 Savage 4 is underpowered for current gaming needs, it's more than adequate for everyday business and other leisure uses.
You can, for example, play back DVD-Videos using the combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive provided. The CD-RW offers 12/8/32X; in DVD-ROM mode this is 8X. As well as the standard nine-pin VGA video output, the SpaceCube offers both composite and S-Video sockets at the rear, so you can connect directly to a domestic TV. This means you can play DVD-Videos on the biggest screen in the house.
The rest of the space inside the SpaceCube's case is packed with hardware of all kinds, leaving very little room for upgrading. The twin fans manage to find enough air to keep the PC cool and are also quite quiet in operation.
The hard disk drive sits in a cradle that can be slid out from the rear of the case and is a 40GB Western Digital WD400EB (a 5,200rpm device). This provides plenty of storage for a PC in this market and is adequately fast.
The power supply is unusually positioned at the front of the case, but here it's a sound choice. With so much going on at the back, there would be little room for the necessary cooling vents. In fact, three rows of substantial holes in the front panel help keep the internal temperature down.
The model reviewed here was supplied with keyboard and mouse, but not a monitor. Neither are well-known brands and the keyboard feels light and hard on the fingers, but does have multimedia function keys.
Watford Electronics supplies a variety of conventional and LCD monitors, but you need to add £120 (ex. VAT) for a 17in cathode ray tube display and £300 (ex. VAT) or more for a 15in liquid crystal display.
Windows XP Home comes pre-installed, but the SpaceCube can be supplied without an operating system. This is ideal if you want to set up a network of Linux-based devices, but is unusual, given Microsoft's dislike of bare PC sales. You can take around £60 off the asking price if you buy it bare.
The 1200 is one of a range of SpaceCubes with different processor, memory and hard drive specifications, but the same form factor. As an entry-level PC, it represents good value for money. It packs all the essential hardware of a modern PC into a device the size of an Apple PowerCube, but at a fraction of the cost.
Price: £419.99 (ex. VAT)
Contact: Watford Electronics (0870) 220 0044
Fact file
- OS Windows XP Home Edition
- Processor 1.1GHz Intel Celeron
- Memory 128MB of 133MHz SDRam
- Graphics chipset 16MB S3 Savage 4
- Hard disk 40GB
- Optical drive CD-RW/DVD
- Display n/s
- I/O Serial, parallel, four USB 1.1, two FireWire, composite video, S-Video, line-in/out, 10/100Base-T
See also:
Aries has launched a 1.7GHz PC for £399. It's certainly cheap, but is it any good? 27 Feb 2003
The latest MicroPC proves size isn't everything by packing a lot into its small frame. 15 Nov 2002
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